ndly
relations with non-Jews were always recommended and cultivated. A non-Jew
who devotes his life to the study and practice of the law, said Rabbi
Meir, is equal to the high priest; for Scripture says: "The laws which, if
a man do, he shall live by them," implying that pure humanity is the one
essential required by God.(1282) Indeed, Rabbi Meir enjoyed a close
friendship with OEnomaos of Gadara,(1283) a heathen philosopher spoken of
admiringly in Talmudic sources and placed on a par with Balaam as noble
representatives of heathendom. Obviously this good opinion was held,
because both spoke favorably of Judaism, whose "synagogues and
schoolhouses formed the strongest bulwark against the attacks of
Jew-haters." Other friendships which were described in popular legends and
held up as examples for emulation are those between Jehuda ha Nasi and the
Emperor Antoninus (Severus)(1284) and that of Samuel of Babylonia with
Ablat, a Persian sage.(1285)

9. The Mosaic and Talmudic law prescribed quite different treatment for
those heathen who persisted in idolatrous practices and refused to observe
the laws of humanity, called the seven Noahitic laws, as will be explained
more fully in the next chapter. No toleration could be granted them within
the ancient jurisdiction; "Thou shall show them no mercy" was the phrase
of the law for the seven tribes of Canaan, and this was applied to all
idolaters.(1286) Hence Maimonides lays down the rule in his Code that
"wherever and whenever the Mosaic law is in force, the people must be
compelled to abjure heathenism and accept the seven laws of Noah in the
name of God, or else they are doomed to die."(1287)

On the other hand, in the very same Code, Maimonides writes in the spirit
of Rabbi Meir: "Not only the Jewish tribe is sanctified by the highest
degree of human holiness, but every human being, without difference of
birth, in whom is the spirit of love and the power of knowledge to devote
his life exclusively to the service of God and the dissemination of His
knowledge, and who, walking uprightly before Him, has cast off the yoke of
the many earthly desires pursued by the rest of men. God is his portion
and his eternal inheritance, and God will provide for his needs, as He did
for the priest and the Levite of yore."(1288)

10. To be sure, a statement of this nature presents a different judgment
of heathenism from that of the ancient national law. But the historical
and comparative stud